FOLKTALE & FOLKLORE SERIES
Type Personal Work
KAKAHUYAN (Forest)
This is based on a Philippine folktale about the Tambaloslos. The stories differ very little from each other, men or women would get lost inside the forest and through his spell, they'd be trapped walking around in circles unless they start to wear their clothes backward. If they fail to do so, they'll be ravaged by a pan-like demon. Because of his perverse ways, he angered the mountain god Gugurang and he cursed the demon with privates so grossly enlarged, the demon would have difficulty using them. Some say he still lingers in the forests tricking people.
MAMBABARANG (Witch)
We call them Mambabarang. They use witchcraft to harm or to maim. In the Philippines, Siquijor is infamously referred to as the island of witches because of their active prominence there. They usually keep a swarm of carnivorous beetles in a bottle as a medium to their dark arts. And sometimes they use the usual dolls and needles to cast curses and torture. Witches in our folktales have turned people into insects, fruits, animals, monsters, and the like. We’re always told to be respectful to elders and strangers, by the chance that one of them may be a witch.
SAMIN (Mirror)
We were told that when you stand alone in front of the mirror at midnight with light from a single candle, you might see the face of your true love. But others say it could also summon the devil or perhaps, something else entirely.
UNGO (Ghost)
The long swerving Loakan Road is one of the most infamously haunted places in Baguio City, Philippines. They say decades ago, a lady dressed in white would hail a cab and tell the driver to stop by the Loakan Cemetery, only to vanish when they arrive. Hearsay is that it belongs to a woman who decades before was raped, murdered, and hanged in one of its trees. When the tree was cut down to give way for the concrete road, she began to roam and haunt upon losing her resting place.